Suns News: Week 22 (3/13 - 3/20)

[ShelC]

Last Week's Games
Wed, Mar 8 vs Thunder 131-102 WIN!
Sat, Mar 11 vs Kings 128-119 LOSS

This Week's Games
Mon, Mar 13 @ Golden State 10:00PM EST on ESPN
Tue, Mar 14 vs Milwaukee 10:00PM EST on BSAZ/NBATV
Thu, Mar 16 vs Orlando 10:00PM EST on BSAZ/NBATV
Sun, Mar 19 @ Oklahoma City 3:30PM EST on BSAZ

Suns Stories
Suns GM James Jones Shares Encouraging Update on Kevin Durant
https://www.si.com/nba/suns/analysis/ph ... ant-injury

Suns will have to rely on defense to close out the season strong
https://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2023 ... son-strong

Suns wing Josh Okogie went through many emotions at NBA trade deadline
https://arizonasports.com/story/3515573 ... -deadline/

Power Rankings

CBS Sports
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba- ... s-move-up/

Suns #9 (-4) - Kevin Durant tweaked his ankle during warmups before what would have been his home debut for Phoenix. Boo. The Suns still won that game, but lost to the Kings in a valiant effort on Saturday. Devin Booker scored 44 points in 28 minutes in the win over OKC, while Chris Paul averaged 17 points and 12.5 assists in the two games on 57 percent shooting.

NBA.com
https://www.nba.com/news/power-rankings-2022-23-week-22

Suns #7 Record: 37-30 OffRtg: 114.3 (12) DefRtg: 111.9 (6) NetRtg: +2.3 (9) Pace: 98.7 (22)

The Suns without Kevin Durant are still pretty good. After Durant sprained his ankle during his pre-game workout on Wednesday, they clobbered the Thunder (who were without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), getting 44 points (on 17-for-23 shooting) from Devin Booker and 24 off the bench from Terrence Ross. And with the win, the Suns had scored at least 130 points per 100 possessions more times in March (3) than they had prior (2).

But the Suns without Durant are lacking some depth. And on Saturday, they lost a game in which they outscored the Kings by 14 points in the 18.7 minutes that their starting lineup was on the floor. They were a minus-23 in the other 29.3 minutes, allowing Sacramento to score 89 points on 64 possessions (139 per 100) when at least one of their starters was on the bench.

The Suns are 7-4 since trading Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson, 3-0 with Durant and 4-4 without him. And there will be nine more without-him games before Durant is even reevaluated at the end of the month. Durant never seems to have any rust when he returns and the Suns will be near impossible to guard when they have all their stars in uniform, but they still have some work to do to secure a top-four seed in the West. They lead the fifth-place Clippers and sixth-place Warriors by three games in the loss column and they’ll play both of those teams one more time this season. The game against the Clippers is on the last day of the season, but they’ll have an opportunity to complete a season sweep of the champs in San Francisco on Monday.

ClutchPoints
https://clutchpoints.com/nba-power-rank ... ns-celtics

3. Phoenix Suns (+5)
We hate the fact that KD will be out for a significant amount of time. However, we love how the Suns have seemingly taken that in stride. Yes, they’re coming off a loss to the surging Kings, but don’t give up on these Suns just yet. And certainly not when Devin Booker is averaging 36.0 points per game and hitting 50.0 percent of his threes this month.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Excuse me James? I am concerned about the fantasy basketball playoffs.

[bajanguy008]

Excuse me James? I am concerned about the fantasy basketball playoffs.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Revisiting our ongoing "Where will Deandre Ayton play next season?" discussion...

I'm curious what a deal could look like in an Ayton for Kristaps Porzingis swap.

Porzingis is currently in the midst of the best year of his career, and will be in the final year of his contract next season assuming he picks up his $36M player option. I suppose there's a chance he declines the option to secure a longer deal, and that would give me a bit more pause in projecting his production in the 2023-24 season. He could actually be looking at this season as his "contract year".

From a scheme fit, I'm not sure there'd be much easier of a transition. Porzingis does everything as well as or better than Ayton right now besides general mobility, but we all know how Ayton has a habit of being very inconsistent with his hustle up and down the court.

[Wally_West]

I don’t hate hate the Porzingis idea but he’s way to injury prone, and with KD and potentially Paul still, I don’t want 3 of our top 4 guys basically guaranteed to miss 20 games each.

[Flagrant Fowl]

He's been moving fine this year and taken plenty of hits throughout the season. I think the "injury prone" tag is a misnomer now. He should easily surpass 65 games played this season.

If debating between him and someone like Clint Capela, I think it's worth the risk to go for Porzingis. If the option is a younger guy in the same age range as Ayton, then I can understand not taking the risk on Porzingis, Turner, etc..

[Split T]

I’d trade Ayton for wings and shooters and then sign Naz Reid.

My dream would be Vassell, McDermott, and Graham for Ayton.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Yeesh that’s the lowest return I’ve ever heard. Vassell is the only quality playoff player in that group.

I do love me some Naz Reid though. I’d be fine with him and someone a level better than Jock and Biz as the main Center rotation.

[TOO]

I'd much rather beef up the wings and guards when moving Ayton. You can win with average C play. You can't win with average perimeter or guard play.

[Split T]

Vassell replaces Mikal. He’s averaging 19/4/4 and shooting 39% from 3 on 7 attempts a game. I’d be worried the spurs would say no at including Vassell at all. McDermott and Graham would mostly be for salary matching. Though they can both also shoot, even if they don’t offer much other skills.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I'd much rather beef up the wings and guards when moving Ayton. You can win with average C play. You can't win with average perimeter or guard play.

A Center who can stretch on offense and defend the paint on defense is probably the second best prototype after the versatile wing.

If they could guarantee at least one high quality wing, then OK. Otherwise a hodgepodge of Craig/Okogie/Ross types won’t cut it.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Vassell replaces Mikal. He’s averaging 19/4/4 and shooting 39% from 3 on 7 attempts a game. I’d be worried the spurs would say no at including Vassell at all. McDermott and Graham would mostly be for salary matching. Though they can both also shoot, even if they don’t offer much other skills.

Agreed on Vassell.

McDermott doesn’t do much for me, and Graham is plain terrible now.

[Split T]

I thought McDermott could be nice for his shooting. It would be nice to have a knockdown 3 point shooter off the bench. Not sure he’d remain playable in the playoffs though. And ya Graham would just be like a 3rd pg…but need his salary.

[carey]

When do we panic? We're hanging on to the 4 seed but barely. Only 2 games out of the play-in.

[Split T]

Panic if we’re still losing when KD comes back

[Split T]

We also have the tie breaker locked up against most teams behind us

[ShelC]

I'm not panicking but I'm also disappointed we can't make a move in the standings due to KD's injury. Denver's lost 4 in a row, tho the Grizz have won 3 a row despite Ja being out. Still, we've hung tough thru some of these losses without KD. It's encouraging we're not getting blown out, but feels like a lot of missed opportunities just the same.

[ShelC]

[TOO]

He is from my hometown, i knew the name was familiar.

[Superbone]

Interesting. Sounds like a new role for us.